Just Hand It To Him On A Platter

Brutus and I went for a walk this afternoon, and all in all things were going pretty well. It was only 28 degrees outside, so we were walking pretty fast, but that helped to keep me warm!

So, I'm always talking about how Brutus has this great nose for critters, and how nothing gets past him. Well today he wasn't exactly on his toes. Part of our walk goes through a wooded area, and he has his nose to the ground tracking something. I look up and there's a deer standing about ten feet to the left of us. He never did see it, and it didn't move a muscle other than turning it's head to follow us. I was waiting for an exorcist moment! I didn't realize that deer could turn their heads so far around.

We make it past the deer without incident, get out of the woods and are heading past a house that has a big pine tree in front of it, and Brutus wants to stop and take a smell. At this point we've already put in a good two miles, so the rest of the walk is "his" walk. I let him exercise his senses too. So he sticks his head under the tree and pulls out a squirrel. Yep, a great big frozen solid squirrel. I have just spent the whole summer and fall taking mice and chipmunks out of his mouth, and really thought that now that we are back in the city I could be at least just about done with the rodents for a few months, and this one was already dead and just waiting for him. So of course he's got it locked in his jaws like he has just found the treasure chest filled with gold, and I'm trying to figure out how in the heck I'm going to get it away from him. There is no way in hell that he's going to carry it for the last half mile of our walk! I can just see the look on my neighbor's faces if they happen to drive by and I'm walking Brutus with a big squirrel in his mouth. Ugh! So, since it was frozen solid, I pulled on Brutus's leash so I had his head right down to the sidewalk, put my foot on the squirrel and pulled the two apart. It was absolutely disgusting. As soon as it was out of his mouth I ran so he wouldn't have a chance to pick it back up.

OK people out there, Brutus is good enough at catching and killing and bringing me rodents all by himself. There is no need to put them under the edge of a tree for him to pick up. I thank you from the bottom of my squirrel guts covered shoe. :)